Amen. This team is young and has two road losses to top 10 teams. At least the defense looks to be improving. The passing game looks horrible, but we also lost our top two receivers. We still put up nearly 300 yards on the ground with practically zero threat of a pass, and with at least one starting O-lineman out. That's pretty impressive. War Eagle!

AU went 8-5 last year too, however OU lost their Heisman winning QB early in the season, so blaming their record on the offense is a little misleading (considering it's the same offense that earned him the Heisman in the first place). Plus it's a blip in their record. They now have two season in the last TEN where they didn't win at least 10 games. If AU's fast-paced offense is going to have similar dire consequences, I think I can live with that.

That's 23 already on campus, which leaves room for just 2 more. Does anyone know if Bonolomo and McNeal qualify, can we fit all 25 (i.e. do we have less than 60 on scholly right now so that adding 25 gets us to or under the 85 limit)?

While I agree that in it's purest form, college athletics SHOULD be college students who happen to play sports (and not the other way around), it is what it is. If you want that kind of purity, go watch some DIII football.

So let me get this straight. You're saying that the vast majority of players in all sports will not go pro, but giving them a free education and the opportunity of a lifetime to play in front of 90K people isn't enough compensation for someone who, otherwise, would have gone on from HS to work at Discount Tires or something. Yeah, that makes sense.

Scholarships for poor kids with good grades? How novel. Too bad only about 99% of scholarships out there meet that criteria. Take it from a middle-class kid with good grades (graduated Magna Cum Laude in ME). Every time I asked about schollies, I was told my parents made too much.

Guess you are unfamiliar with your own team's history. 1966, Bama went undefeated, after winning the NC the previous two years. They were "snubbed" by the voters for Michigan State and ND, who played each other in the regular season and tied. Now, you were saying something about not getting respect?

The point wasn't which coach did more with less (obviously Saban wins that debate). The OP said Miles "took a perennial powerhouse and underperformed". I debate both those points. First, to call a team with only two 10+ win seasons and three 3+ loss seasons a "perennial powerhouse" is a bit of a stretch. Second, Miles outperformed the standard set by Saban. Now, to say that Saban would have done better than Miles is pure conjecture. It'd be like me saying that a Miles coached Bama team would never have lost to LaMo. See how that works?

Uh, LSU is not undefeated, Meyer didn't "inherent" Tebow (he recruited him), and to say that LSU has underperformed compared to where Saban left them has to be a joke. Here is Saban's records at LSU:
2000: 8-4
2001: 10-3
2002: 8-5
2003: 13-1
2004: 9-3

Throw out the first year, and you still have only two 10+ win seasons, and three seasons with 3 losses or more (out of 4 seasons). In contrast Miles has had three 10+ win seasons, and only one 3-loss or more season (out of 4 seasons as well). Also, looks like he's gonna have another 10+ win season with less than 3 losses.

Where did he say he's looking to do more trick/gimmick plays? He just said he's looking to expand the playbook a little and for some more options so defenses don't just key on our three or four offensive weapons. Did you just see the word "trick" in the headline and assume this was about trick plays?
Also, as bad as the offense was at Ark, it wasn't helped much by the fact that it was standing on the sideline most of the time while Ark put together long, clock-killing drives against our defense.

If before the season started, I got a visit from future me and was told that AU was 2-2 at this point in the season, I would not have been surprised. After last year's train wreck and the uncertainty of a new coaching staff, not to mention finding out our best QB was a one-armed zombie, I don't think many AU fans looked at our schedule and thought "Oh yeah, we'll be 4-0 easy going into UT". So pleasantly surprised is how I would describe my thoughts on the season so far.

Bragging about beating North Texas because they beat Ball State is like an adult bragging about beating up the biggest kid in a 3rd grade class. Oh yeah, that's some mighty powerful 3rd grader you beat up there Bama. Lots tougher than the 3rd grader we're going to beat up on this Saturday.